Former Mackay player to face old club in game on Saturday

Former Sarina and Mackay Cutters player Ross Bella will play for the Cowboys Under-20 team against the Cutters on Saturday night.

The game will be a curtain-raiser to the North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos trial game.

Cowboys National Youth Competition coach Todd Payten said the team was looking good after a tough pre-season.

"I think they're itching to get out on the park and get into it," he said.

"The boys have been training hard and I can't question their work effort, everyone is looking forward to Saturday."

This is the youth team's first hit-out of the year, and Payten said it would be a good contest particularly after the Cutters' impressive performance against the St George Illawarra Dragons at the weekend.

"I spoke to Kim Williams, the coach and he said they competed well, which is good for him... and good for us," Payten said.

"We're looking to improve as a squad mentally, at stages throughout games our concentration levels, particularly at 20s levels, teams tend to drift in and out of games."

Payten said Bella was looking forward to the game.

"He's got the advantage of having a lot of support down there," he said.

Payten said Bella had been impressive since being involved with the Cowboys outfit.

"He has been really good, he's nice, he works hard and he's a pretty intelligent type of footballer," he said.

"He has fitted in very well.

"Physically I think he's probably a good 12 months away, after another 12 months in the gym he'll grow in leaps and bounds."

Cutters coach Kim Williams said he would be naming his team for the trial game today after last night's training session.